The COVID-19 pandemic occurred in the world in January 2020. Without
specific vaccines and antiviral treatments, the virus easily spreads across different parts
of the world. Accordance to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 has
widely spread to nearly all countries across six geographical regions (i.e., Western
Pacific, Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia, Europe, and Americas). In
doing so, different countries implemented various preventive measures like hand
washing, lockdowns, social distancing, and mask-wearing to minimize the transmission
of the virus. However, such preventive measures are short-term, ineffective, and may
not be sustainable. The introduction of common vaccination campaigns is viewed as a
vital effective way to against COVID-19. Over 60 vaccines for COVID-19 are either
previously endorsed or going through clinical experiments. As expected, there will be
an increasing need for people to accept vaccine injections. The vaccine is a highly
vulnerable, high-value, and rare product in the world. As such, resilient vaccine supply
chain management is urgently needed. Otherwise, the inferior quality of vaccines poses
global health risks and causes the problem of wasting useful medical supplies.
Nevertheless, some logistics firms encountered unfolded logistics challenges of the
COVID-19 vaccine due to a lack of professionals, capacity, data integrity, inventory
management, fluctuating demand, and geographic risk (e.g., vibration, location, shock,
and temperature. In particular, most logistics firms and health specialists encounter
severe challenges in managing the vaccine supply chain in remote areas or developing
countries. Although the vaccine is a global and hot issue for researchers, industrial
practitioners, local communities, and policymakers, there is scanty attention to
investigating the establishment of a resilience vaccine supply chain management in the
context of COVID-19. At present, only a few research groups have discussed the role
of blockchain in vaccine supply chain management, however, the information is not
enough to reveal the impact on how vaccine supply chain management of blockchain
can mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, this chapter will mainly focus on the
overview of the influenza pandemic around the globe, the existing situation of the
COVID-19 pandemic in the world and Hong Kong, the current development of
vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of blockchain in the vaccine
supply chain, and the vaccine logistics in COVID-19.
